On Sat, 2004-01-17 at 11:26, Bryce Martin wrote:

Brett Parker and I visited the Reindeer (or Finesko & Firkin) pub on

Thursday

evening this week to see what it was like as an alternative venue to the Forum Bar. In our opinion the Reindeer is totally unsuitable and could not

be

used to host a meeting of alug. In our humble opinion it would be far better to continue using the Forum

Bar.

Just out of interest for what reasons was it not suitable?

Adam ................

We thought it was unsuitable because of load music, very poor lighting (too dark), and finally poor or unsuitable seating and general layout of seating. I think it would be difficult to get everyone around one table, and you can't really bring tables together like you can at the Forum Bar to expand seating as more people arrive. But importantly the atmosphere was just completely wrong for a meeting (of alug).

Just a thought. We left the Firkin pub pretty quickly and went across the road to the City Gate Weatherspoon pub. It has the right atmosphere for a meeting in my opinion. The seating and lighting are very good and tables can be brought together. There is no music but the place has a lively congenial atmosphere. As an added bonus you can get a curry if you're hungry.